JAPANESE EDUCATION

MOTIVATIONAL DIFFERENCES

"Indeed, emphasis by American teachers on the importance of effort has not

succeeded in convincing students that effort is the most important determinant in

achievement; many students remain uncertain whether exerting effort is worth the risk

of failing" (Holloway 339).

The concepts of ability vs. effort and intrinsic motivation vs. extrinsic motivation may

play a key role in the difference in achievements between Japanese and American

students. In the case of Japanese students, many have adopted the idea that putting

in the maximum effort will produce the most favorable results. In fact, in one study,

given the sentence "That he has achieved success..." about 72% mentioned effort

while only 1% mentioned ability (Holloway 329). Therefore, the outcomes are extra

effort and concentration to learn the material effectively in order to make sure that their

lives are in their own hands and not in the control of factors such as discrimination and

prejudice. This type of thinking engenders an intrinsic motivation to learn because

Japanese students have been taught to believe that their entire life, not just their

academic fate, relies directly upon the amount of work they put into their

studies. Consequently, the motivation to succeed is not to get good grades, to receive

money or rewards from their parents, or for someone else to tell them they are

intelligent, but has much more to do with the drive to a certain life goal or ideal. In other

words for Japanese students, "learning was not confined to the classroom...they

described learning as some form of personal fulfillment" (Douglas 97). In other words,

this ideal can be achieved by learning and educating oneself not just for academic

honors, but for a sense of overall satisfaction and pride.

In contrast with this focus on effort, American students see their high achievement in

a different way. Students in the US tend to attribute high achievement to high ability

and not to high effort (Holloway 328). Furthermore, in the US the typical view on ability

and effort is that they are indirectly related and therefore someone who exerts more

effort is only doing so in order to make up for their lack of ability (Paris Lecture). As a

consequence, American students do not see a rational reason why they should put

forth extra effort into their academic studies because it seems quite futile. According to

such logic, the more effort one puts into a task the more they are essentially telling

themselves they are inherently unintelligent. Thus, it is psychologically anti-thetical to a

student who believes that effort and ability are unrelated, to still put forth the amount of

effort needed to truly reach their full academic potential.

If indeed it is true that Japanese students focus more on their effort and intrinsic

motivations while American students attribute achievement in terms of inherent ability

and extrinsic motivations, the differential achievement of the two groups is a clear

logical outcome. While extrinsic motivations can galvanize tremendous amounts of

effort in certain situations, intrinsic motivation for putting forth effort to achieve a task is

consistently more successful. If a student feels that he or she is personally gaining

something worthwhile AND they are motivated to do so by their own merit, the overall

result will be a much more eager and diligent student. Consequently, although

students in the US may have just as much ability, resources, and potential as students

in Japan, educators must strive to stress the importance of effort in a task and

simultaneously diminish the negative assumption of its relationship to ability.

STRUCTURE DIFERRENCES

"Japanese students spend 240 days a year at school, 60 days more then their

American counterparts" (Johnson & Johnson 1996)

American and Japanese school structures differ in many different ways. The first,

and most significant way, is that Japanese schools incorporate a national curriculum

created by the Japanese Ministry of Education. Thus, unlike the educational system in

the United States, in which each state determines its own curriculum, the federal

government decides on what each school must teach, how to teach it, and even what

books to teach it with. Therefore, there are many implications for such a disparity in

educational structure. For American schools, the fact that each state can come up with

their own curriculum means that states have autonomy as well as responsibility for

what each student learns. Consequently, each state can then implement curricula in

schools based on the resources available to each state and what the state feels is the

most important for its students to learn. However, the major problem with this system

is the fact that the resources, namely money, available to each state and district varies

so much that students across the country receive vastly different qualities of

education. Furthermore, because students across the country are educated at such

disparate levels depending on the resources available to the school as well as the

specific way in which the school decides to comply with the state curriculum, high

school graduates from two different cities, not to mention states, may have strongly

dissimilar skills and knowledge. This outcome is exceedingly true when comparing

low-income urban schools with higher income suburban schools in intra-state and inter-

state analyses.

Therefore, what the Japanese school is able to do by incorporating a nationalized

system, is make sure that every student receives the exact same education and thus

the system aims to decrease any gaps based on differential curricula. In the US, even

though standardized testing such as the ACT and the SAT are nationalized, the playing

field is not. Nevertheless colleges expect students from schools with such vastly

dissimilar resources and curricula to compete nationally when applying and

consequently students from disadvantaged backgrounds (socio-economic and

educational) are the victims of the inconsistency. Therefore, while the Japanese

schools are educating students at a even, arguably superior, level, students in the US

must find a way over the hurdle of decentralized, state determined curricula. One

study does show some cause for hope, however, in that, "when US teachers use a

curricula that parallels that of Japan, US achievement is similar to that of Japan"

(Westbury 24).

A second structural difference between Japanese and American schools is simply

the amount days students are in school. Students in Japan spend, "240 days a year at

school, 60 days more then their American counterparts" (Johnson 1996). Although

critics of this claim have pointed out that many of the extra days are spent engaging in

activities geared more towards cultural studies and field trips, students in Japan still

spend significantly more time in school than students in the US. Furthermore,

traditional Japanese schools also have a half day of instruction on Saturdays. As a

result, according to some estimates, in 13 years of schooling, US students receive

almost a year less than those in Japan. The implications of this are that not only do

Japanese students receive more actual time per day engaging in focused, academic

study, but they also spend more days overall and therefore may have a clear

advantage in terms of practice, repetition, and breadth of knowledge. Not only that, but

the Japanese school year is divided into 3 terms, without extended breaks that may

cause students to lose their skills in the absence of regular academic instruction for

prolonged periods of time (Johnson 1996). Thus, the problem in the US of students

from disadvantaged backgrounds gaining an essentially equal playing field over the

academic year and then losing most of what the gained over the summer, may not be a

factor in Japan because of the systemic difference in the academic calendar (Lecture).

Finally, although the US spends a considerable amount of money on education

relative to Japan, much of the funds that are appropriated are used for things other

than academics. These include funds for transportation, food, athletics and custodians

as well as money for programs such as D.A.R.E. In fact, as much as 40% of US

curricula is devoted to nonacademic subjects (Abbeduto 380). In contrast, most

Japanese students walk or ride their bikes to school and many traditional Japanese

schools even have students clean the school at the end of each day. Furthermore,

although students in Japan do participate in extra-curricular activities such as sports

after school, most are only allowed to choose one club. Additionally, most students

who are considering college perceive such activities as a hindrance to their chances of

passing the entrance exams that will pave the way to their success (Johnson 1996).

CULTURE DIFFERENCES

"Asian parents invest more in educational resources than their white counterparts

despite comparable resources" (Kao 150)

Another possible reason for the educational differences between Japanese and

American students is the amount of emphasis placed on education in the two

cultures. Although by and large both Japan and American cultures place importance

on education, the way in which it is emphasized may be a point of

differentiation. Cross-cultural studies have shown that Japanese parents not only

encourage their children to learn from an early age, but they also instill the concept that

a good education is the basis for their success in life. In other words, parents play a

extremely vital role in promoting academic excellence and the student is in-cultured to

believe that anything less than the best in school is a failure not only to themselves, but

to their parents. This type of mentality is captured by Kao in a focus group study when

a student responds that, "his brothers success on the track team was not a source of

pride for his parents; in fact, they refused to attend his track meets. Only straight A's

and getting into an Ivy League school would completely satisfy the parents" (Kao

150). Consequently, it is evident that extra-curriculars have secondary, if any,

importance to a student's self efficacy and their parents approval and therefore putting

ones effort into such activities are futile.

As a result of such a cultural emphasis placed on Japanese students to be the best

academic students they can be, they inevitably spend significantly more time studying

and doing homework than their American counterparts. Thus, American students who

already spend less days in the year and less amount each day concentrating on

academic study, also devote less time after school to their homework. This may be

due to the fact that American teachers themselves do not stress the importance of

homework relative to other educational activities (Chen & Stevenson 560). In other

words, American students may not place as much educational value as Japanese

students on doing homework if the homework itself is depicted as less important by

educators. This may be a plausible reason why some American students choose to fly

through their homework without trying to really understand the concepts or why their

parents allow them to do homework while watching television. The students

concentration level is inherently abated if they perceive the extrinsic value of doing

homework, not to mention the intrinsic value, to be mediocre at best.

Furthermore, a study of Japanese and American after-school activities, 46% of

Japanese fifth-grade students enrolled in after-school classes or private tutoring

compared with about 10% of their American counterparts (Chen & Stevenson

560). These statistics point to the fact that Japanese students have a culture that is

geared much more to academic education than in the United States. Thus, despite the

fact that the student has spent all day in regular school, parents nonetheless choose to

send them to additional academic institutions or tutoring services rather than allow

them to spend their free time in other non-academic extra curricular

activities. However, what they parents may not realize, is that extra-curriculars such as

sports, music, dance, and others that on their surface seem like unnecessary activities

solely for enjoyment, help to make a student more well rounded and socially

developed. Their have been numerous studies, for example, linking educational

achievement to involvement in music. Consequently, Japanese students may be

saturated with academic practice but concurrently are deprived of other enriching

activities that may even enhance their academic acuity.

There are pros and cons to the strong cultural emphasis on academics placed on

children by their parents. On the one hand, parents interest in their childrens lives and

success is certainly laudable. For many American students, an increase in parental

involvement and encouragement may serve beneficial. On the other hand, extreme

stress and a sense that academic failure means failure in life may not be the healthiest

for any student, regardless of culture. Furthermore, such an emphasis may even

contribute to reverse or deteriorating effect and cause a "burn out" in the long

run. Therefore, although it is important for parents to instill educational values and take

interest in their childs education throughout their lives, academics should never be the

depicted as the sole determinant in a childs success or failure in life.